A mass beaching of up to 150 dolphins on the Japanese coast has fuelled fears a powerful earthquake could be imminent.

Frantic efforts to save the melon-headed whales or blackfish – both species of dolphin - were in vain and most of the animals died on the shore of Ibaraki prefecture on Friday.

Television footage showed dozens of people carrying buckets and pouring sea water over the dolphins, or even covering them with bath towels, to keep them from drying up.

Only three of the 150 beached dolphins survived

The dolphins were wobbling and moving their fins as rescuers gently rubbed them.

Though there is little scientific evidence of a link, some online commenters have pointed out a similar mass beaching of the same species six days before the devastating tsumani of 2011 which killed some 19,000 people.

JV Douglas wondered: “Ominous sign to a similar case before 2011 earthquake in Japan?”

Toshiaki Kishiro, head of the Cetacean Resources Group at Japan’s National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries told The Telegraph he agreed the theory could be one explanation for the dolphins coming ashore, but it was just one of several possibilities.

“Another explanation that has been put forward is that the dolphins have become confused by naturally occurring magnetic fields, or that they were trying to evade other species, such as killer whales.”

Tadasu Yamada, a cetacean expert at the National Museum of Nature and Science, told Japan's NHK public television that the dolphins may have had a physiological or psychological problem and faced an unknown threat and panicked, before becoming stranded.